Today it is exciting to receive this equisite Haiku Anthology, under the same moonand so proud to have three of my hailu included with many well known haikuists.
‘Alive with birds and frogs, suffused with the threat of bushfires and floods, these haiku sing with the uniqueness of Australian life. The skill on show is breathtaking , as distinctive individul voices lay bare moments of joy, loss, awareness and connection to inner and outer landscapes. ” Esther Ottaway
Colleen Keating I am excited to have three of my awarded haiku over the past few years published .
on my doorstep
a single rose softens
lockdown
birds and frogs
harmonise at dawn
Kakadu billabong
spring backburn
smells of last summer
waft on the wind
In the blurb on the back cover the well known poet Kevin Brophy writes: “And just as the butterfly puts so much effort into being light, you’ll wonder, does the haiku compress or expand the world ?. Does it vanish into its possible meanings or is each haiku, like autumn leaves, competing to be the most strangely beauitful object on the forest floor? “An amazing analogy, And amazing how 17 syllables or in the Japanese way 17 beats of sound can tell us a cosmic story from the minute nano size story to the universe expanding vision.
An example of this is from Dr Andrew Hede . His haiku expresses the grandness of the moment of experience ‘virgin forest’ to the humble minuteness by the age read in the time line of growth.
It speaks of the loss of our virgin forests which are disappearing and the reality of the time to grow and the moment of cutting down it with the fresh-cut stump,
virgin rainforest ninety-four rings on a fresh-cut stump
Andrew Hede Page 44.
Below is the back cover with the blurb I qouted from and my page of haiku.
Thank you to the editors for the new Anthology for its beautiful sensitive presentation and choice of haiku.
Thank you Kent Robinson for the following write up .
White Pebbles haiku poets gathered at the Edogawa Gardens at the Gosford Regional Gallery and Arts Centre on Saturday morning, 16th September, 2023. Present were Maire Glacken, Marilyn Humbert, Gwen Bitti, Colleen Keating, Beverley George and Kent Robinson, with apologies received from Samantha Sirimanne Hyde and Michael Thorley.
A glorious spring day greeted us. Ducks and koi carp shared the pond and water features of the gardens. As they fed the ducks, children’s laughter echoed among the beautifully manicured flora. Spring blooms of every hue brightened the walkways.
We met in the Gallery’s cafe for a catch-up before a stroll through the gardens. Over coffee, Marilyn Humbert, advised us that, in order to refine our sense of observation as we strolled, we look into the small spaces – distill whatever we saw, and trust ourselves and our senses as we composed our haiku. We strolled the garden, feeling the warmth of the spring sunshine on our faces. The scent of blooms bursting all about and the joy of being immersed in birdsong were intoxicating.
Now it was time for a round table meeting in the niche beneath the art gallery. At the beginning of the meeting our dear friend and valued member of White Pebbles, Gail Hennessy, who sadly recently passed, was remembered fondly. The round table about which we gather is extremely significant to our group. Around it we may share ideas and each single poet is as one with all others. How fortunate we feel, that White Pebbles is such a mutually supportive group!
Beverley George distributed for purchase “under the same moon”, the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology, in which several White Pebbles members have haiku. (Many thanks to Vanessa Proctor for furnishing Beverley with copies of this fine anthology in advance of our meeting.)
Echidna Tracks 11 was spoken of, with congratulations to all White Pebbles poets who feature therein.
We then moved on to the business of the day. Beverley had asked that we each bring a haiku that had inspired us in the early days of our haiku journey, as well as one of our own that we had composed in those early days. Matsuo Basho featured strongly as an early influence to many.
Next, we considered the haiku and images that had been gathered on the garden walk earlier. This proved an extremely productive exercise. Beverley presented some haiku that Michael Thorley had sent in. Thank you, Michael. Your sensitive haiku were a fine addition to our meeting and very much appreciated by all.
Marilyn Humbert had prepared a presentation entitled “The Art of Discovery”. She advised us in composing haiku to observe light and shade at different times throughout the day, different seasons, different weather conditions, different sounds and different moods. And to be aware of the ephemeral things – feathers, stones, bird calls, the shapes of twigs and leaves, tree trunks and bark, rough and smooth. To trust our senses. Helpfully, Marilyn supplied a number of examples of haiku written from different points of view. Many thanks to Marilyn for a most informative and thought provoking presentation.
At this point, towards the end of our meeting, we acknowledged our members who have recently had books published.
* Gwen Bitti has had a novel entitled “Between Two Worlds” published by Ginninderra Press. Gwen spoke of the writing of “Between Two Worlds” and furnished each White Pebble poet with a sachet of fragrant herbs, a snippet of silk and one of hessian to enhance sensory perception, as she spoke. * Colleen Keating’s carefully researched book, “The Dinner Party” was also published by Ginninderra Press and we enjoyed hearing about it.
* And we recalled that only recently, in 2022, Samantha Sirimanne Hyde’s book “The Lyrebird’s Cry” was published.
Congratulations All!
This concluded the White Pebbles Spring meeting 2023. The general sentiment was all are looking forward to our summer ginko.
In the bush I hear the trees ferns, palms and moss whispering their wisdom renewing my being healing my soul
– Colleen Keating
After winter
Still dark enough to note the morning star
she walks again the bush track. A few magpies
fossick in frosty grass for first feed. Swallows dart
among the insect motes off the dandelion spent heads
and fly back to perch on telegraph wires.
It is still cold. Apple-crisp and silver.
The clouds open as silk fans, their bone
displayed like veins of a feather. The magpies
sing now from branches above, and she thinks too
how their morning song is her Delphian oracle.
She walks the track that’s a bracelet of charms
taps a branch watching a spangle of diamond–
dew drops light the way while the early light captures
a scarred tree trunk hollowed black like Munch’s Scream.
A cockatoo perched above glints with the gold
of a mohawk fiend, soon in flight it will have the air
of a Tiger Moth in a opal-tinted sky. She has always loved
the walks here, the brush turkey stepping from
its scratchy music of an old LP, the whipbird checking
on its mate from the high river gums, the wrens chirping
from the safety of undergrowth, yet today it is a rupture
of spring that sings a rhapsody of song: purple milkwort
ravishing attention, pink wax Eriostemon, wedding veil
showers of boronia and orange pea plants sitting
in their spiky foliage. There is joy in watching the earth
re-awaken, the inevitable journey out of a winter
segueing towards summer. Ahead she can see
why she came – a wild display of flannel flowers. Petals
still mostly closed – their green tips a rising choir ready to sing
an Alleluia chorus. Open petals like earth-bound stars have
the velvety feel of a childhood dress and sparkle in the shifting
light. She loves those Banksia trees that shade the groves
flamboyant with rough bearded seed pods like sleepy-eyed owls
wisely peering down: with the zephyr of a breeze there’s
a shuffling sound as if feathers are being ruffled or a yellow
skirt swinging through dried grass. The sun now on the shoulder
beams into the canopy of green and she will walk back
her mind pianissimo as a gentle Brahms largo passage
alert to nature watching, her enlivened step.
I am thrilled to learn my original poem In Search of Hildegard goes on from strength to strength. Originally short listed and commended by the Society of Women Writers Giving Women a Voice National Poetry Competition in 2019, then included in the amazing new book Hildegard Speaks by Dr. Annette Esser for the Hildegard Pilgrimage in Germany, translated into German by the talented Dr. Annette Esser, the founder of the Scivias Institute for Art and Spirituality See below . . (love to hear it spoken in Hildegard’s mother tongue) and now short listed as a short film in the Bogota, Columbia Short Film Festival “I Am Peace.”
All exciting as the Pilgrimage is on at the moment through the Pilgrims Way to arrive at the Benedictan Abbey overlooking the Rhine River and Bingen . on Hildegard’s Feast Day 17th September.
in search of Hildegard of Bingen
I take a train out of Bingen
through the Rhine Valley
on this sweaty summers day
trek up a steep hill
relieved to find an old sign klosterruine
which points to a verdant track
into a cool shady grove
here remnants of the twelfth century monastery
moss-mottled stone walls
mostly buried by vines
and embedded tree roots
is Hildegard’s world
standing in this moment
with the outlines of another world
time is shapeless
the divide of centuries a blur
only my mind’s eye can see
a spirited young woman
flourishing herb gardens
she prepares salves and tonics
attends the sick
listens to the breeze
and finds God in the hills above her
kairos time
for her visions writings mandalas and music
later a powerful feminist voice
against corruption patriarchy and senseless war
the earth is our mother she would sing
revere and care for her
if we exploit and savage her
she will be out off balance
and the price will be high
then silence for nine hundred years
in our time
the scales are tipped loudly out of balance
the all ords and the dow are the measure
a daily intake of massacres crowds our entertainment
soul mutilation makes soldiers unable to cry
I lean against the wall marked Hildegard’s cloister
in the lush shade of an almond tree
hanging fruit voluptuous now
is falling to emptiness
the void
the nothingness
how human to fear the waiting
for fullness to return
scattered around me
are rotting almond fruits
flies enjoying their feast
the decay fodder for the soil
my eyes scan for her presence
a maiden hair fern
grooved into a crumbling niche
catches my eye
delicate and tenacious
I feel a quickening
like a first flutter of new life
too often the fragile the intimate whisper
the lightness of touch
the flicker of a sanctuary lamp
like the breath are portals and easily missed
I ponder the rise and fall of my breathing
listen to the rhythmic heart beat
hear veriditas chants in the crumbling walls
veriditas murmurs hildegard
hildegard is here
I do not flinch i expect her
nothing like the grey statue at the abbey
holding the orb and feather
her presence is intimate
light glows luminous
her arms full of herbs from the garden
and her muddy hand-made sandals
make me laugh
Congratulations, Michael Conti!
Your talent and enthusiasm for our initiative are heartwarming and changemaking. We have reviewed your film submission and appreciate announcing to you and our world that your film, In Search of Hildegard of Bingen, is part of the Official Screening Selection of the I AM PEACE GAMIP Global Short Film Forum 2022.
Michael Conti, Colleen Keating
In Search of Hildegard of Bingen
Colleen Keating translated by Annette Esser
in search of Hildegard of Bingen
… auf der Suche nach Hildegard von Bingen
… ich nehme einen Zug aus Bingen
durchs Rheintal
an diesem Sommertag
steige auf einen steilen Hügel
erleichtert ein altes Schild zu finden Klosterruine
das auf einen grünen Pfad führt
in einen kühlen schattigen Hain
Überreste des Klosters aus dem zwölften Jahrhundert
moos-gefleckte Steinwände,
die meist von Rebstöcken bedeckt sind,
und eingebettete Baumwurzeln
das hier ist Hildegards Welt
in diesem Moment
in den Umrissen einer anderen Zeit zu stehen,
Zeit ist formlos,
die Einteilung in Jahrhunderte unscharf.
nur das Auge meiner Seele sieht
eine lebendige junge Frau
und blühende Kräutergärten
sie bereitet Salben und Säfte
steht den Kranken bei
hört auf den Wind
und findet Gott in den Hügeln über ihr
Kairos Zeit
für ihre Visionen, Schriften, Mandalas und Musik
später eine mächtige feministische Stimme
gegen Korruption Patriarchat und sinnlosen Krieg
die Erde ist unsere Mutter sie würde singen
ehre sie und sorge für sie
wenn wir sie ausbeuten und über sie herfallen
gerät sie aus dem Gleichgewicht
und der Preis wird hoch sein
dann gab es neunhundert Jahre Stille
zu unserer Zeit
ist das Maß lautstark aus der Balance geraten
das wer bietet mehr und der Dow sind die Maßstäbe
ein tägliches Reinziehen von Massakern trägt zu unserer Unterhaltung bei
Seelenverstümmelung belässt Soldaten unfähig zum Weinen
Ich lehne mich gegen die Mauer, die als Hildegards Frauenklause bezeichnet wird
im üppigen Schatten eines Mandelbaums
hängende Früchte nun lustvoll
die Leere
das Nichts
wie menschlich das Warten zu fürchten.
dass die Fülle zurück kehrt
meine Augen skandieren nach ihrer Gegenwart
das ferne Haar eines Mädchens
eingefercht in eine zerbröckelnde Nische
zieht meinen Blick an
fein und zäh
Ich fühle eine Erregung
Wie ein erstes Flattern neuen Lebens
Allzu oft sind das zerbrechliche intime Flüstern
die Helligkeit der Berührung
das Flackern einer heiligen Lampe
Tore, die wie das Atmen leicht übersehenwerden
Ich sinniere über den Anstieg und Abfall meines Atems
The award winning poet Pip Griffin delighted me with one of the first copies of her new poetry collection,
Opus
A life with music
Using a creative metaphor, I am proud to say I was one of the midwives in its creative growth and Pip’s birthing of the book. The joys and nurturing of music in our lives always came through as Pip’s poetic ideas grew .
A great combination of life and music, a mood and a mode, a singular voice, that draws her readers like me to each new poem she writes.
I am thrilled for Pip and honoured to be her friend.
Opus: A life with music is a stunning collection, beautifully written and withheld.’ – Libby Sommer
‘“Through music, we can say what we didn’t even know we felt.” – Ed Le Brocq. What more powerful way to reflect on your journey of life than entwined with the memory of music. Exquisitely wrought, Opus gives us snapshots, sometimes softened, sometimes shocking but always honed and beautifully crafted, revealing a deep perception and intimacy as we have come to know of Pip Griffin’s poetry.’ – Colleen Keating
‘Pip Griffin’s Opus is a gently written verse memoir of her childhood in New Zealand to her mature years in Australia. References to Chopin, Mahler, Gustav Holst, Elvis Presley and many others justify its subtitle, “a life with music”. Touches of sadness, including her partner’s death and her mother’s thwarted dreams, balance the collection’s positive tone. This is poetry to read over a few winter evenings by the fire or summer afternoons in the shade of a tree.’ – Norm Neill
Opus is Pip Griffin’s eighth poetry publication. Her books include Virginia & Katherine: The Secret Diaries (Pohutukawa Press 2022), Winner, Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards (poetry) 2022; Margaret Caro, the extraordinary life of a pioneering dentist (Pohutukawa Press 2020) Highly Commended, Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards (poetry) 2020; Mood Indigo (Picaro Poets 2019) with Colleen Keating and The Climb Back: poems for Ted (Ginninderra Press 2021).
Two of Pip’s poems Libertango and The Dave Brubeck Quartet were published in the recent
Women’s Ink, Autumn 2023
Libertango
One winter’s evening
in an old asylum’s grounds
there’s a hub of warmth –
coffee, conversation, music
where a diminutive young woman
dances her bow across her double bass
syncopating with guitar
playing the Libertango.
They have the audience –
folk followers, musicians
poets, singers
maybe even shades of troubled souls
clapping, tapping their feet
swaying, smiling
surrendering their bodies to the seductive beat
of a sultry Buenos Aires night.
Pip Griffin
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
At twenty she shares a flat with friends
in half a house that clambers up the hill in Thorndon
adds a Brubeck record to her Bach and Brahms
buys a ticket to his Town Hall concert
and sits alone amongst expectant fans
taut as drum skins begging to be played.
Brain on fire with crooked rhythms
her body jitterbugs to teasing riffs
the dry martini saxophone stirs her spine
dizzying drumming pummels her solar plexus
and there is Brubeck – bespectacled face beaming
striding syncopated chords across the keyboard.
Of Moments and Days by Graham Wood published by Ginninderra Press. There was an excited buzz as we entered room 4 at the Hornsby Shire Library this afternoon, Sunday, July 23rd , 2023. The poet, Graham Wood greeted us at the door and we bought his new book, Of Moments and Days. The launch began with the poet Peter Porter welcoming us . The well known poet, Martin Langford spoke poignantly about time and life in a very philosophical way. You could’ve heard a pin drop as everyone waited upon his words.
And then we were read to . . .Graham’s poetry . . . poignant as I wiped awa a tear listening to the poem Centenary, laughing out loud with the poem Policy Launch, warm humour and memory of the poem The Day that Gough Got In. I am excited to get the time to sit down and enjoy Grahams very sensitive poetry.
An Important Note Graham makes:
An sincere thank you to Stephen Matthews OAM and Brenda Eldridge of Ginninderra Press for the opportunity of publication, their encouragement in doing so, and the considerable efforts they make in bringing Ginninderra Press poetry publications to fruition.
In this, his first full collection of poems, Graham Wood considers some of the mysteries involved in time and memory. He does this obliquely rather than directly, in a glancing way. Many of the poems focus on the particular moments of experience that our memories are able to capture and preserve. Some are like snapshots or small movies, often suffused with a quirky humour. Others are more serious in tone and reach, but always retaining a lightness of touch. Graham has lived in Sydney for most of his life, after half a childhood in country New South Wales. His poems have been published in Australian and international journals and anthologies, and on a number of poetry websites. Ginninderra Press also published five of his poetry chapbooks over 2021-2022.
978 1 76109 528 3, 108pp
I am sharing some of the poems I like to read over and over.
When I am Among the Trees
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
by Mary Oliver
Some of my favourite poetry No 2.
Water Flows
Water does not resist. Water flows.
When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.
Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.
But water always goes where it wants to go,
and nothing in the end can stand against it.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.
Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water.
If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.
Exciting to have some of my haiku accepted for the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology. Thank you to Andrew Hede who encouraged me to submit. It was worthwhile.
Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology
edited Lyn Reeves
Colleen Keating
on my doorstop a single rose softens lockdown
birds and frogs harmonise at dawn Kakadu billabong
spring backburn smells of last summer waft on the wind
It is always a joy to receive the new edition of Eucalypt and especially joyful when one of my tanka is included amongst the many startling and succinct tanka . This month is no exception receiving Issue 34 2023. Lovingly presented
and including tanka that takes days to ponder and absorb .
Welcome to our BHR 16 Spring 2023 issue of Blue Heron Review! We hope you enjoy this themed selection of poems — Sanctuaries & Places of Peace. To read the full selection of poems and view the beautiful, fine art photography included, please go to the BHR 16 page of our website. Take your time, allow yourself to leisurely sip and savor this issue. These poems will surround you with the energy of peaceful afternoons in the forest, time spent with loved ones, and the deep well of calm that exists within. Breathe, read, reflect, repeat. Thank you for joining us for this very special issue!
CONTRIBUTORS:
Poets: M J Iuppa * John Davis * James Crews * Mary Alice Williams * Michael S Glaser * Kai Coggin * Javi Maria Cain * John M Bellinger * Tad Phippen Wente * Gloria Heffernan * B L Bruce * Beate Sigriddaughter * Jo Taylor * Patricia Nelson * Lisa Romano Licht * Andrea Potos * Kristen Baum DeBeasi * Abha Das Sarma * j lewis * Elizabeth McCarthy * Angela Hoffman * Jeannie E Roberts * Jenna Wysong Filbrun * Kathie Giorgio * Jennifer Dodge * Susan Glassmeyer * Mary Anna Scenga Kruch * Steve Bucher * Ginny Lowe Connors * Kathleen Deyer Bolduc * Helen Bournas-Ney * Penny Harter * Chrissy Stegman * Colleen Keating *Daniel Lanzdorf * Gwyneth Wynn-Davies * Ronnie Hess * Lynne Burnett * Carol Alena Aronoff * Diana Raab * Cheryl Byler Keeler * Patricia Carney * Jan Chronister * Joyce Ritchie * Joan Leotta * Michael Minassian
Artists: Thomas A Thomas (cover artist) * j lewis (featured artist) * Fiona Capuano * Michael Jeske *
Editor’s Note:
It is with great sadness that I must share the news that we have lost a dear member of our Blue Heron Review family. Professor and poet M J Iuppa passed away last month. M J was a regular contributor to Blue Heron, and she was our featured poet for the month of March 2015. She will be greatly missed by the writing community. In honor of M J’s memory, her poem, “Drink This In,” appears as the first poem in our issue.
Send goodness and light out into our world. This will be our saving grace for tomorrow.
Peace, Cristina M. R. Norcross, Founding Editor Blue Heron Review
COLLEEN KEATING
winter days
On the mud-flats near an afternoons silver lake, i stop to watch a red dragon kite
soar with dips and dives on whistling air.
a child again
neck crinked back
carefree
A fisherman and solitary figure on the dunes watch this bird-like thing swirl and whirl.
Purple ribbon tails flutter, tangerine feathers swell, puffed up with air, tugging the string
the woman holds. I hum the Lark Ascending. I ask the woman why she comes each afternoon.
She replies, because looking up makes me feel so much better.
one feather
holds the worrying day
lightly
A Sydney-based, Australian, award-winning poet, Colleen Keating has four poetry collections and two verse novels published. Colleen belongs to several poetry critique groups – U3A poetry, Pennant Hills, Poetry at Writing NSW, and a Haiku group (White Pebbles). Her verse novel, Hildegard of Bingen: A Poetic Journey was double winner for a poetry book and for a non-fiction book in the Society of Women Book Awards in NSW State Library. Her new verse novel, Olive Muriel Pink: her radical and idealistic life, was launched in October 2022 in the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and is being highly acclaimed.
